Letters to the Editor
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A Salon hatchet job on someone to the right of Castro
Who didn't see that coming, I mean other than the fine people of Venezuela who now are not allowed their TV if it's critical to Lord Hugo.
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and oh
She's a first First Lady of France who is 0% French. And proud of it. Her ancestry is Spanish anousim.
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franco-american
this would definitely be problematic in the US; let's not
(once again) foist our morals on another culture. look what happened last time we tried that. the french survived mitterand's mistress without a blink. sarkozy has more pressing issues and that's what will concern his electorate. unfortunately for us, we have two hillary clinton bios that will serve as distractions from our equally vital issues.
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"Even" Maureen Dowd?
What else does this vicious harpy have to write about? Al Gore, "so feminized he's almost lactating", as she wrote in 2000? The latest bullshit on Hillary and Bill? I don't give two shits about Mrs. Sarkozy, but anytime anyone mentions Dowd without spitting, it gets me angry.
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Who the f**k cares?
Why is Salon buying into this gossip as political comment crap - we have fox news for that.
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Der Spiegel is a pretty sleazy German Gossip Mag and the story reflects actually well on Sarkozy
Let's look at the situation.
Cecelia Sarkozy splits to New York with a somewhat dodgy "publicist" and with new boyfriend makes a point of fairly publicly cuckolding Sarkozy, leaving behind, inter alia, the children. She then finds out that after about 6+ month of absence and insistence that she will not returen, that she is blissfully happy, that Sarkozy might be seeing a comely member of his campaign team, indeed that he may be contemplating divorce. Suddenly she drops the publicist and comes dashing back to Paris, engages in a quite public reconciliation with Sarkozy and bars the attractive aide from the office. When Paris Match publishes the story, out of which she does not come out well, she, mortified jumps on husband to have it killed -- he does (by the way, the story was intended as a political stab in his ribs, and the knife wielder found that dangerous, in the culture of Paris, well that's just tough.)
Now, suddenly, she is again getting the vapours as Sarkozy gets elected President -- oh I will/won't live in the Elysee, oh I will show up, no I won't, I (major self dramatist! former model!) am bored at the idea of being first lady (which is not why I rushed back from New York.) Here is the isssue -- the "first lady" in France or the United States is a non-figure constitutionally, and even when Dubya is in the room attracts less attention. What one appears to have here is a desperate effort at a "look at me" "look at me" "I'm so pretty, so troubled, so much more important than the short swarthy guy who happens to be President of the Republic," a bit like the maid in the countryhouse tour in Little Britain.
I'm sorry, Sarkozy comes out of this as a pretty decent guy and extraordinarily tolerant-- Cecelia a thoroughgoing ***** and crazed self dramatist. It is apparent though that she is going to be a problem for the Elysee, the drama has already started.
Oh der Spiegel is, well, the mag that would publish anything, death pictures of D, etc. A creepy mag.
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A couple of remarks here...
First of all, politicians asking newspaper owners to intervene and suppress stories is nothing new: the French won't have to "get used to that" since this is the normal "modus operandi" of French politics.
Second, a lot of people were shocked by Mitterand's behaviour. Not that he had a mistress -- nobody cared about that -- but that he used his power as President to spy on some people who knew (and some who did not) in a completely illegal manner. Mitterand behaved like a jerk and, in at least one case (a provocative intellectual named Jean-Edern Hallier) actually hounded until his death one of his critics who knew about his double life... and his pilfering of public monies to put his mistress and their daughter up in luxury.
Third of all, it was an open secret that, while "Cecilia" had an affair in New York, her husband had his own affair going on with a pretty blonde (and empty-headed) journalist on the side. To say that a man like Sarkozy wa going to be cuckholded without doing anything is a bit... well, naive, to say the least.
Finally, in a country known for its corrupt politician, it is highly possible that Nicolas Sarkozy will win the Grand Prize: after all, here is a man who was "invited" by one of his billionaire friends to spend a week on his splendid yacht, all expenses paid. The company of the billionaire is one that does a lot of business with French Government. Expect more of the same in the next five years.
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This isn't completely speculation
I followed the French elections loosely and Cecilia did noticeably stick out like a sore thumb the night of the elections. She was dressed inappropriately and looked sullen throughout. Even the next day she seemed to have a forced smile leaving the hotel they overnighted at. However, i'm not sure how "good" her affair made Sarkozy look. After all, as one poster noted he courted a dumb journalist from Le Figaro in his absence. This does lend to international interest however - a young couple, an ex-model, past affairs. I expect this is just the beginning.
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RealName
Fine, call it a hatchet job. After all, we hate France, right? Freedom Fries forever!
What? We like France now? But I already poured all my french wine down the drain!
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For such a visual article
with its detailed descriptions, why no pictures?
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I want to hear Salon
Keen and moan over the social, marital and sexual peccidillos of their sacred cows in the DNC.
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Useless Link
WTF is that London link for? I clicked on it expecting to see a picture of the 'prison escape outfit' but instead got links to all the Salon articles about London(?!). As it contains no useful info, the link is essentially an internal advert and should be labeled as such.
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What About the French
I have a friend in France who is literally depressed by the election of this right-wing trogladyte. And she's not alone. How about a story or two about the French and what they think of their new president?